Stocks began the week with a quiet, but positive, session as investors seemed mostly content to wait on the next move from the Federal Reserve before making their own next moves to buy or sell. The Dow lagged as it was once again faced with a headwind from Boeing (BA), which continues to struggle with a stream of headlines about the grounding of the 737 MAX.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the NAHB housing market index was unchanged at 62 in March, which was a tick worse than expected.
In the U.K., House of Commons speaker John Bercow said that lawmakers won't be allowed to vote on Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal twice, according to media reports.
TOP NEWS: Shares of Boeing slid 1.77% after the Seattle Times' Dominic Gates reported that Federal Aviation Administration managers pushed the agency's safety engineers to delegate safety assessments to Boeing itself, and to speedily approve the resulting analysis, when initially certifying the 737 MAX. Federal prosecutors and Transportation Department officials are scrutinizing the development of Boeing's 737 MAX jetliners, which are "unusual inquiries," The Wall Street Journal additionally has reported. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that investigators looking into the crash have discovered strong similarities in the "angle of attack" data recorded by said plane's cockpit recorder and data from a Lion Air aircraft of the same model that crashed in October.
Google (GOOGL) and General Motors (GM) were each in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump over the weekend. Trump said that, "Google is helping China and their military, but not the U.S. Terrible! The good news is that they helped Crooked Hillary Clinton, and not Trump....and how did that turn out?" Google denied the accusation, with a spokesperson for the tech giant telling NBC News, "We are not working with the Chinese military. We are working with the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense, in many areas including cybersecurity, recruiting and healthcare." Meanwhile, the President claimed that GM "let our Country down, but other much better car companies are coming into the U.S. in droves" in a separate line of tweets.
The management board of Deutsche Bank (DB) announced that they have decided to review strategic options with a focus on improving the growth profile and profitability of the bank. "In this context we confirm that we are engaging in discussions with Commerzbank (CRZBY)," the German banking giant announced.
In other M&A news, FIS (FIS) and Worldpay (WP) announce that they have agreed to merge to create a combined company "positioned to offer best-in-class enterprise banking, payments, capital markets, and global eCommerce capabilities empowering financial institutions and businesses worldwide."
CNBC reported that Kevin Tsujihara has been ousted as CEO of AT&T's (T) Warner Bros. following a probe into sexual misconduct allegations.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Edwards Lifesciences (EW), which rose 6.2% after it said that the SAPIEN 3 Valve proved to be superior to surgery in the PARTNER 3 trial. Also higher was Carrizo Oil & Gas (CRZO), which gained 6.45% after Bloomberg reported that it is weighting a tie-up with rival SM Energy (SM). SM Energy was 2.4% higher after the news.
Among the notable losers was BioScrip (BIOS), which slid 15.8% after Stephens analyst Dana Hambly downgraded the stock to Equal Weight, contending that the company "surprised the market" by announcing a merger with Option Care. Also lower was Synaptics (SYNA), which fell 22.6% after announcing the departure of its CEO Richard Bergman and after it cut its third quarter earnings and revenue guidance.
INDEXES: The Dow rose 65.23, or 0.25%, to 25,914.10, the Nasdaq gained 25.95, or 0.34%, to 7,714.48, and the S&P 500 advanced 10.46, or 0.37%, to 2,832.94.
Boeing
-6.795 (-1.79%)
Alphabet
-1.6 (-0.13%)
Alphabet
-3.69 (-0.31%)
General Motors
-0.095 (-0.25%)
Deutsche Bank
+0.375 (+4.22%)
Commerzbank
+ (+0.00%)
FIS
-0.73 (-0.67%)
Worldpay
+9.8 (+9.93%)
AT&T
+0.12 (+0.39%)
Edwards Lifesciences
+11.1 (+6.17%)
Carrizo Oil & Gas
+0.75 (+6.46%)
SM Energy
+0.385 (+2.45%)
BioPlus Acquisition
-0.45 (-16.13%)
Synaptics
-9.73 (-22.53%)